


To the folly of youth and the wisdom of age

by SoThisIsAThingIWrote



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: F/M, blink and miss it pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:35:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29451651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoThisIsAThingIWrote/pseuds/SoThisIsAThingIWrote
Summary: "I fear I speak from experience when I say that it is not good to withhold your heart from the world," Cardan begins, "but I believe that it is also not wise to give it away so freely. Especially just because someone has demanded it of you."Oak blinks at him. "Uncle Cardan, what are you talking about?""Your heart, I should not like to tell you what to do with it, buteveryschoolmate is….a lot of love. Perhaps you ought to listen to your heart a little closer?""Love?" Oak's nose wrinkles in disgust. "This isn't - these aren't - Gross, Uncle Cardan!""Is not this mortal holiday about love?" Cardan asks, confused.Oak rolls his eyes. "Sure, if you'reold."Jurdan Valentines drabble. With a bit of Oak thrown in.
Relationships: Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Comments: 5
Kudos: 73





	To the folly of youth and the wisdom of age

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentines! Please enjoy this unplanned, unedited....thing.

"One for _every_ schoolmate?" Cardan asks.

"Uh-huh," Oak says around the tongue poking out from between his teeth. He scribbles a name in blocky writing across the tiny brightly coloured piece of paper. "My teacher said we had to."

Something, some small voice in the back of Cardan's head that has only very recently woken up, stirs at this. It stops to take stock of the situation, and then prods Cardan very hard in his consciousness. _This is a teaching moment,_ It says. _This is good practice for the future. Say. Something._

Cardan's brow furrows and he reaches across to gently rest a hand on Oak's, stopping the thick pencil in place. 

"I fear I speak from experience when I say that it is not good to withhold your heart from the world," Cardan begins, "but I believe that it is also not wise to give it away so freely. _Especially_ just because someone has demanded it of you." 

Oak blinks at him. "Uncle Cardan, what are you talking about?"

"Your heart," Cardan waves his hand in the general direction of Oak's chest. This was harder than the small voice had led him to believe. "I should not like to tell you what to do with it, but _every_ schoolmate is….a lot of love. Perhaps you ought to listen to your heart a little closer?"

" _Love?_ " Oak's nose wrinkles in disgust. "This isn't - these aren't - _Gross_ , Uncle Cardan!"

"Is not this mortal holiday about love?" Cardan asks, confused. 

Oak rolls his eyes. "Sure, if you're _old."_

"...old," Cardan repeats.

Oak shrugs, "well yeah. Only old people are in love right? This," he points to the small stack of brightly coloured notes by his elbow, "is about not making the teacher angry so you still get the pizza party."

  
  


***

"I learned something while infant-sitting Oak today," Cardan announces later that night, looking up from his book when Jude enters the room.

 _"Babysitting,"_ Jude corrects, slowly lowering herself into a chair and beginning the inevitable losing battle of trying to take off her shoes. From the kitchen, she can hear Oak excitedly talking to Vivi and Heather. "What was it?" She grunts, straining to reach the laces of her practical ankle boots. She should probably give into Tatterfall's persistent nagging and switch to slippers, but her pride won't let her even if it means a nightly struggle. At least only her husband is there to see it; and since the whole thing was half his doing anyway, she trusts him to know better than to say a word.

Cardan shuts his book with a snap, abandoning it on the couch as he crosses the room to her, kneeling in front of the chair and beginning to loosen the laces. Jude slumps back with a grateful smile. 

"I learned," Cardan tugs the laces free on one boot and begins work on the second. "That I am old."

"What?"

"Mmm hmm," Cardan cups one gentle hand around her ankle, using the other to tug a boot free.

"You're _twenty-one._ " 

"I do not know," Cardan continues. He lowers one foot and takes up the other. "the exact hour or day that I became old. I think that I was already halfway to being there before I realized I'd begun."

"....You're _immortal._ "

Cardan grins up at her, and Jude immediately relaxes at the mirth in his eyes. Whatever _this_ is, he's having fun. Jude remembers then the love of word games that all folk share. The second boot joins the first on the floor. 

"You'd be right to think that I was surprised to discover that I was old. Perhaps I even mourned my youth a little, but now that I _am_ here, in my old age, I find that I am perfectly happy." Cardan catches one of Jude's hands and presses a kiss to the knuckles there. "Happier than I ever dreamed I could be. I sincerely hope I am old forever more." 

"Cardan," Jude asks, completely lost, " _what_ are you talking about?"

"You did not tell me about this Valentine's Day celebration in the mortal world," Cardan says in mock reproach, "but Oak was very helpful in filling in the details. I have since learned that only old people are in love. And since I am in love," he presses a kiss to her hand once more, turns his head slightly and presses another to the rounded curve of her stomach. "I must, therefore, be _old."_

Jude blinks for a moment as his words settle, and then blushes deeply. She frees her hand to flick him in the forehead. "Normal people say 'Happy Valentines' and 'I love you,' you know."

Standing, Cardan reaches for her other hand and helps her to her feet. "I love you," he murmurs, bending his head to press his lips to hers. 

They part eventually, and suddenly there is a folded piece of bright red paper in front of her nose. It's a child's valentine, the kind she vaguely remembers giving to classmates before being taken to Faerie, the brightly costumed superhero on it asking her to be his Valentine in bold text.

"In memory of the folly of youth," Cardan smiles, "and the wisdom of old age." Jude snorts, but she takes the valentine, running her thumb along one edge. 

"I have also been told," Cardan continues, "that by giving you that, I have now completed the requirements for a pizza party."

Jude laughs, "we should go tell the other the good news."

"Indeed." Cardan holds out his hand and Jude takes it, letting him lead her into the kitchen. Jude tucks the valentine into her shirt as she goes, settling it over her heart with a smile.


End file.
